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A Curious Man: The Strange And Brilliant Life Of Robert "Believe It Or Not!" Ripley (2013)

by Neal Thompson(Favorite Author)

3.58 of 5 Votes: 1

ISBN

077043620X (ISBN13: 9780770436209)

languge

English

genre

Memoir & Autobiography

publisher

Crown Archetype

review 1: As a young kid i always looked forward to coming home from school and watching Ripleys believe it or not. There was just something about seeing weird people all around the world that made me feel a little more normal around other people. As much as it helped me feel average compared to all the other little booger pickers, I never put any thought to who Robert Ripley was… Honestly I thought his name was Ripley… odd name for an odd guy… it fit right?I explained last post about Blogging for Books and i honest to Pete love this site… and its only my second book!lol But its a start to making my “Beauty and the Beast” library. Anyway, this week i ordered A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It or Not!” Ripley. I had my heart set on one... more book but saw this and clicked faster than my brain could say stop… But compared to my last book i loved it!!!!I think what did it for me was the fact that the author didn’t seem to keep details out of the picture… You get what could possibly be the entire story of Mr. Robert Ripley. Neal Thompson covered everything from his complicated childhood, to his heyday as a one-man multi-media powerhouse to the unfortunate personal decline and demise, and finally, through his still-vibrant legacy. To any fans, or people like me ( a 90′s kid) this is a definite read…. well of course unless you have never heard of him… in which case… good him, read about him and then one click this baby and read more about him!!! Thanks for spending some time with me and he if you wanna know more about Blogging for Books or just wanna say whats going on… HIT ME UP!!!! I love getting to know people and who follows me! Below is the book synopsis and the amazon page in which you can buy it or sample it!**A Curious Man: The Strange and Brilliant Life of Robert “Believe It or Not!” Ripley Synopsis**A Curious Man is the marvelously compelling biography of Robert “Believe It or Not” Ripley, the enigmatic cartoonist turned globetrotting millionaire who won international fame by celebrating the world’s strangest oddities, and whose outrageous showmanship taught us to believe in the unbelievable.As portrayed by acclaimed biographer Neal Thompson, Ripley’s life is the stuff of a classic American fairy tale. Buck-toothed and cursed by shyness, Ripley turned his sense of being an outsider into an appreciation for the strangeness of the world. After selling his first cartoon to Time magazine at age eighteen, more cartooning triumphs followed, but it was his “Believe It or Not” conceit and the wildly popular radio shows it birthed that would make him one of the most successful entertainment figures of his time and spur him to search the globe’s farthest corners for bizarre facts, exotic human curiosities, and shocking phenomena.Ripley delighted in making outrageous declarations that somehow always turned out to be true—such as that Charles Lindbergh was only the sixty-seventh man to fly across the Atlantic or that “The Star Spangled Banner” was not the national anthem. Assisted by an exotic harem of female admirers and by ex-banker Norbert Pearlroth, a devoted researcher who spoke eleven languages, Ripley simultaneously embodied the spirit of Peter Pan, the fearlessness of Marco Polo and the marketing savvy of P. T. Barnum.In a very real sense, Ripley sought to remake the world’s aesthetic. He demanded respect for those who were labeled “eccentrics” or “freaks”—whether it be E. L. Blystone, who wrote 1,615 alphabet letters on a grain of rice, or the man who could swallow his own nose.By the 1930s Ripley possessed a vast fortune, a private yacht, and a twenty-eight room mansion stocked with such “oddities” as shrunken heads and medieval torture devices, and his pioneering firsts in print, radio, and television were tapping into something deep in the American consciousness—a taste for the titillating and exotic, and a fascination with the fastest, biggest, dumbest and most weird. Today, that legacy continues and can be seen in reality TV, YouTube, America’s Funniest Home Videos, Jackass, MythBusters and a host of other pop-culture phenomena.In the end Robert L. Ripley changed everything. The supreme irony of his life, which was dedicated to exalting the strange and unusual, is that he may have been the most amazing oddity of all.
review 2: First and foremost, I am grateful to the website, "Blogging For Books" for sending me a copy of this book. I received this book from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. "A Curious Man: The Strange & Brilliant Life of Robert 'Believe It or Not!' Ripley," by Neal Thompson, engrosses your attention from the get-go. Robert Ripley led such an extraordinary life, one feels compelled to "read all about it." It is a story of an awkward grammar-school outsider who becomes a dynamic, versatile, intriguing, gregarious, and extremely successful playboy. You can't help but remark, "Well, I'll be; believe it or not," after reading this rags-to-riches real life tale of a man who overcame significant odds to influence the world.You might think I'm exaggerating extensively in the previous paragraph, but, I assure you, what I say I mean literally. Ripley was raised in turn-of-the-century Santa Rose, California, which helped him understand how the world possesses such extraordinary characters, being in the Old West and populated with artistic and spiritual types. He lost his father at a young age, necessitating working jobs as a boy. He had to deal with an ugly set of teeth. He acted shy to a fault in school, especially with the girls–and didn't even graduate. Not a light load to burden a young boy.However, the gleaming ray of hope was his innate passion to draw. Many derided and discouraged him from that drive, but enough people saw potential and facilitated with opportunity, whether school work or finding him employment in the field after leaving home. Here one finds two important lessons from his early days: find your passion and develop it, and seek out mentors and opportunity wherever found.As he moved and settled in New York City, Ripley acted as a pioneer in cartooning, journalism, travel, marketing, theatrical exhibitionism, radio, film, and even television. Along the way he accumulated an incredible team of staff and managers to handle the heavy and diverse workload Ripley's forays encompassed. Two lessons are found from the latter half of his life: experiment and innovate with what drives you, and seek out trustworthy, proactive colleagues.Thompson chose the perfect subject to write about in Ripley, an individual of immense entertainment and entrepreneurial fodder. Here was a man who traveled to dozens and dozens of countries, met such extensive and diverse characters–from royalty to sideshow "freaks"–and lived the lifestyle of a grandiose superstar. He loved his drink, he loved his women, and he loved his adventures. Ripley led quite the incredible lifestyle. Thompson also shares Ripley's depression, insecurities, and emotional up's and down's. You get all the versatility of a real-life dynamic character from a poignant narrator.Not only does Thompson do a magnificent job recounting Ripley's life and the "Believe It or Not!" brand, he also provides wide-ranging perspective on the first half of the Twentieth Century. Two world wars, depression, profound scientific discoveries and inventions, the people who were movers and shakers, all shown from one worldly man's perspective, and how it all affected him on a personal and professional level. Of course, how these people and events affected the country at large, as well, but Thompson maintained a strict focus on Ripley and those he touched. I enjoyed this rare dichotomy Thompson provided.I'm surprised, as Thompson points out in the "Author's Notes", that a full-fledged biography was never written about such an influential and magnanimous man as Ripley was. Thompson has indeed found a subject that is a diamond in the rough; and he has done a magisterial job at that. If you want to read a well-written book full of adventure, history, and wackiness, "A Curious Man" is for you. You'll laugh, you'll gape, you'll anticipate, and, most of all, you'll enjoy this great book–you won't be disappointed. less

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